Dragon Mart is China’s second largest project in the world after Dubai, with an initial investment of approximately $200 million that contemplates the creation of the Chinese Products Distribution Center (MDCCC), which will be responsible for to move Chinese merchandise throughout Latin America.
Located three kilometers from the coast, 18 km from the south of Cancún, nine km from the airport and 11 km from the Municipality of Puerto Morelos, of which it will be part. It will be developed in a perimeter of 100 hectares; Of the million square meters, 255 thousand are destined for GFA, 100 thousand for the commercial area, 90 thousand for a hotel and apartment buildings, 20 thousand for homes and 45 thousand square meters for storage area. Seeking to be the spearhead for Chinese products, of dubious quality, in Latin America.
All this under the protection of the influence peddling of PAN businessmen linked to the Presidency of the Republic and the simulated dispossession by local businessmen and politicians of hundreds of hectares from ejidatarios of the municipality of Puerto Morelos and a future devastation of the mangrove and the reef before the foreseeable expansion of the dock to receive multimodal freighters.
And if the damage caused to the ecosystem were not enough, the arrival of more than 2,500 Chinese merchants who will live within the Dragon Mart complex is expected in principle; Experience indicates that over the years they will bring family members, wives and children, which will lead to a population nucleus of approximately 100 thousand Chinese, who will make up the first Chinatown in the Mexican Caribbean, similar to the Chinatown of Mexico City. or to Chinatown in Los Angeles, California, whose main characteristics are endogamy and resistance to integrating into the host culture, causing a cultural stain that could affect the national traditions and beliefs of the area.
The foundations of the eastern project were established by former governor Félix González Canto, dating back to 2007 when land, owned by the government of Quintana Roo, was expropriated and sold to the project. It was not until March 22, 2011 that the agreement was legally signed by the now PRI senator González Canto and the president of Chinamex and Dragon Mart Cancún, Hao Feng.
And although the project should have been completed at the end of this year, they only started construction in September and it will be completed in December 2013. One of the reasons, according to those involved in the Dragon Mart project, is that the representative of the mega company was the Chinese-Mexican businessman, Zhen Li Ye Gon, prosecuted in the United States for the manufacture of synthetic drugs, so his judicial fate caused agreements and permits to be delayed.
“United Voices of Puerto Morelos” seeks to revoke licenses from Dragon Mart
Neighbors of Puerto Morelos, supported by five environmental groups, sent a letter to President Felipe Calderón to demand the revocation of an Environmental Impact Statement granted by the Environmental Impact and Risk Institute of Quintana Roo for the Dragon Mart project in the vicinity of this city.
Rosa Eloísa Rodríguez, from the Voces Unidas association of Puerto Morelos, reported that the plaza project designed by Chinese and Mexican businessmen implies violation of environmental regulations and international treaties signed by Mexico.
Among others, they mention Agenda 21, Declaration on Forests, UN Convention on the Rights of the Sea and the World Program for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Activities carried out on Land.
For the population of Puerto Morelos and environmental groups, the Chinese-Mexican Dragon Mart commercial megaproject is equivalent to a threat of harmful effects on the environmental environment and the economic, social and cultural fabric of Quintana Roo.
With information from: